New Turtle Hedge Fund Traders Start Jobs

A new batch of “turtle” traders is set to begin their hedge fund jobs on a London trading floor.

Over 8,000 people applied for a chance to become a new turtle trader, working with hedge fund veteran Mike Baghdady and his team starting in early July. They will learn his unique Price Behaviour system of trading before being unleashed on the market. Each of the final 20 applicants will also be given $100,000 in their account to begin their trading careers.

The program is modeled after an experiment by Chicago trader Richard Dennis, 30 years ago. Dennis reportedly visited a turtle farm in Singapore and was inspired to “breed” an elite group of traders. It was also a bit of a bet to see if traders were born with the personality for the job, or could learn it. He trained a group of individuals from very diverse backgrounds in his proprietary trading system to see if they would succeed. Many of them did become highly successful traders.

Bagdady’s unique Price Behaviour approach is apparently based on 35 years of trading experience, and is used at top trading desks at institutional banks worldwide. It identifies winning trades by analyzing the psychology of how people perceive price and value in the market. Now, Baghdady is teaching this system to his turtles, and allowing them to take a share of the profits they generate.

His new turtles come from a wide range of backgrounds as well. Many hail from all over the world, although they all now live in the UK. Backgrounds include: two professional poker players, a credit specialist, an IT administrator, a former Australian Army officer and futures trader, a mathematics grad, a former footballer and London Taxi Driver, a hotel clerk from Azerbaijan, a management consultant, an Oxford-educated accountant, a Mexican investment banker, and an Egyptian trading broker who is relocating to Britain to pursue his dream of trading with the very best.

You can read a bit more about their backgrounds at rfpconnect.com
What about you? What have you done to pursue or further your career as a successful trader? Add your comments below.